“Is it really good to be Generalist? Will it pay-off someday as it does for Specialists?
Recently came across this interesting article on Harvard Business Review: All Hail the Generalist. And was wondering what is the general verdict on this topic.”
Anonymous (via Quora)
I majored in fine art with concentrations in both fine art and piano. I remember my advisor and a trusted artist professor told me that I needed to pick a single route and focus. At this point, I decided art was my route. Piano performance was too risky if I tied it to my financial future. I’d worry about hitting all of the right notes, both figuratively and literally. As a hobby, it’s a huge stress reliever to just zone out creating music.
As my degree progressed I gravitated toward painting while working as a designer. I started both college and my job at the same time in the fall of the year 2000. My sister worked at this company in customer relations and she connected me with the position. I enjoyed the job right away.
Engaging with your areas of interest
“Clarity comes from engagement, not thought.”
Marie Forleo
How do we know when to specialize and when to generalize? Involve exploration as part of your decision-making process by taking small steps. Because of confirmation bias, we’ll tend to try to prove our assumptions. If we believe generalization is best, we’ll tend to look for evidence for generalization. The reverse is true for believers in having a specialization.
Many college students pursue their degrees and careers without engaging with their careers. In my anecdote, I worked as a graphic designer and performed as a pianist as I pursued my degree. Having a more realistic expectation for the lower salary of creative careers prepared me.
I know I’d have to take more small risks during my career and be more conscious of my spending and saving rates to finance this. To this day, I frequently test making bold designs and float my ideas that push past the limits of projects. The feedback from these smaller actions is invaluable in quickly discovering what ideas my clients are open to. In practice, I’m taking a risk by specializing in certain types of design that interest me the most. At the same time, I am prepared to shift gears to more general and approachable visuals with mass appeal.
Taking small steps of engagement allows specialists to generalize and vice versa.
Compartmentalize your skill-set to target your audience
Many apparent specialists are generalists who are skilled at compartmentalizing. Target your audience. At work as a designer, very rarely does anyone need to know that I’m a skilled piano player who regularly memorizes sheet music. If coworkers ask about my above-average memory, I’ll share that this is a skill that has come with practice.
“If your target audience isn’t listening, it’s not their fault, it’s yours.”
Seth Godin
Often different descriptions of the same circumstance arise in different conclusions. This is a type of cognitive bias called the framing effect by psychologists. Without this bias, different descriptions wouldn’t affect the outcome.
The ideas presented differently should still be equal. In technical logic speak, we might call the framing bias a “violation of extensionality”. After all, don’t “1+1” or “2” or “105-103” mean the same thing? I’m a designer, however, so I will believe presentation matters.
What if we had to choose between two candidates with an equal list of skills? Naturally, a hiring manager will prefer a candidate who can focus and prioritize the most relevant skills. That candidate appears to be more of a specialist.
An experiment published in Psychological Science demonstrates targeting specific personality traits. The ads were deemed more effective if they understood individual needs. Some value openness of experience, so the ads emphasizing that strength had a bigger impact on those individuals. Extraverts were most appealed to with ads demonstrating social benefits. Understanding the benefits to the most likely listeners will make them more open to the skill set you have.
Transferable skills complicate the answer
My habit of diligent practice comes from being a classical pianist. In many contexts, sharing that unimportant background information that would cloud my message. The important part is that I’m able to transfer the skill of quickly learning and memorizing music to learning the ins and outs of Adobe Indesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator.
“Design is one of the few disciplines that is a science as well as an art. Effective, meaningful design requires intellectual, rational rigor along with the ability to elicit emotions and beliefs. Thus, designers must balance both the logic and lyricism of humanity every time they design something, a task that requires a singularly mysterious skill.”
Debbie Millman, How to Think Like a Great Graphic Designer
A common complaint in my field is that graphic design job listings often ask for generalists. The most successful candidates realize that hiring managers treat job posts as a wish list. For many years, I specialized working in the print and magazine industry. While working as a magazine designer, presenting myself as a print designer specializing in programming and technology expertise.
As the demand for publication design specialists changes, the ability to work on a variety of projects is a huge advantage. A generalist will be more adaptable when markets change.
Advantages of diversity
Changing market conditions change the demand for specialists during generalists. In a case study, the University of Richmond examined 134 counties and cities in Virginia looking at the impact of specialization and diversity. They found that faster growth of any one industry hampers regional growth across all industries examined.
As an aside, a study by MIT economists found that more gender-diverse workplaces performed better by having a greater number of skills involved.
From a market standpoint, having a balance between specialists and generalists may be the best move. On the individual level, adaptability for a variety of circumstances is possible and ideal for most people.
Readers, do you prefer to specialize or generalize?
Brian E. Young is a graphic designer and artist in Baltimore, MD.